Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to resonant converters. More in particular, the disclosure regards techniques for driving a synchronous rectifier in a resonant converter.
Description of the Related Art
Power distribution in the field of servers and datacenters is undergoing continuous evolution. The continuous growth of these electronic devices requires maximization of the efficiency of the voltage converters that supply them in order to minimize the power required given the same power delivered, so as to limit thermal dispersion in the environments in which they are installed and hence the power used by the corresponding cooling equipment.
There exist various voltage-distribution systems, which are supplied by the mains voltage and convert it into the various voltage levels down to the voltage VCPU required by the processor. Currently, the mains voltage is converted into a first voltage distributed on a main supply bus, then converted into a second, lower, voltage (typically 12 V) distributed on an intermediate bus, and finally converted into the voltage VCPU for supply of the processors. To optimize the efficiency of the systems upstream of the processor, the main supply bus is at a voltage of 48 V.
However, some applications require direct conversion of the voltage from Vin=48 V to Vout=1.2 V, without passing through the intermediate conversion for the 12-V bus, for supplying CPUs and DDR (Double Data Rate) memories.
Other applications may, instead, require direct conversion between Vin=54 V and Vout=12 V.